Kitchen Chick

Pickled String Beans with Ground Pork (rou mo jiang dou)

Vegetarians, don't run away! I know the photo has meat in it, but I think this dish would be delicious without the meat. Why do I think that? Last November we ate at Chung King out in San Gabriel, California. Our cold appetizer selection included a marinated diced green bean dish — on the right in this photo — that haunts my culinary dreams. I've looked for recipes, but haven't come up with a match, but as a part of my exploratory trip through Land of Plenty I came across this dish that uses pickled green beans and dices them up small. Hmmm...

I have limited patience with dishes that require multiple days to make. I'll do them if motivated enough, but dinner at the end of the workday is usually not one of those times. It speaks to how much I've been craving that bean dish that I actually took the time to make the pickled green beans several days in advance.

And what a pleasant surprise it was to discover just how easy it was to do. I don't have a pickling jar, but I have several glass Planters Peanuts jars (saved for spice storage) that turn out to be just large enough to pickle half a pound of beans.

Our schedule being what it is, my beans ended up sitting for a week in the refrigerator instead of the recommended 1 - 3 days. It didn't seem to do them any harm. The finished dish itself is extremely simple to make. There's no sauce to speak of, just a bit of rice wine and soy sauce in the meat and a few spices. The main flavoring comes from the pickled beans themselves. I loved the salty-vinegary bites of green beans, and I think a meatless version would intensify the flavor of this dish. In any event, Joe and I devoured our beans and pork. My mother would be so proud. When I was a kid, we used to fight over getting me to eat even a spoonful of frenched green beans. I vowed to make a double batch next time because I suspect leftovers might taste even better. I may have to get a larger pickling jar.

Dan Dan Mian (Dan dan noodles)

Continuing my tour of Sichuan dishes brings me to a traditional Sichuanese noodle dish that used to be a common street food. I love to sample street foods wherever I go — Hong Kong, for example. (Well, not street hot dogs or hamburgers in Britain, but that's self-preservation.) But street foods, in general, are fun and filling and cheap, and I really love the variety and getting to try this or that tidbit.

Dan Dan Noodles are named after the bamboo shoulder pole (dan) that the street vendors used to carry their stoves, noodles, and secret sauces. There's no one original "dan dan noodles," but Dunlop says that the name has come to be associated with the recipe below. Perhaps in Sichuan that's the case, though in U.S. Chinese restaurants you're more likely to find a version that uses a peanut-sesame sauce (perhaps with cucumbers). So if you're familiar with the sesame-peanut version, this one will be quite a contrast.

The ya cai is perhaps the most intimidating ingredient in this recipe for Westerners. Asian grocery stores have shelves full of a dizzying array of pickled vegetables, and it's hard to know which kind is the right one to use. You can't go wrong with mustard greens. Look for air-tight sealed plastic bags of preserved mustard greens. These need to be chopped and then cooked before eating. Or you can get small jars of pickled chopped mustard greens, which are ready-to-eat and can even be served over plain rice as a snack if you're into that kind of thing.

Gong Bao Ji Ding (Kung Pao Chicken)

Gong Bao Ji Ding

With so many cookbooks on my shelf, I decided it was time to make a serious study of them. I admit a bias toward the newer ones, because they've been written with today's cooks in mind and take into account availability of ingredients and modern kitchen equipement. I've been raving so much about Land of Plenty that I thought I should start there. I'll explore both some more unusual recipes as well as her versions of ones commonly found on restaurant menus in the U.S. So... I hope you all don't mind, but it's going to be "Chinese for dinner" for the next few meals.

Gong Bao Chicken was named after a Qing dynasty government official named Ding Baozhen who is said to have particularly enjoyed it. There are many stories, none confirmed, told why he favored this dish ranging from it being a dish he brought with him from his home province to his chef inventing this finely chopped dish because he had bad teeth. (I love the stories behind the names of Chinese dishes. They are often not true — the real origins having been lost to time — yet so often so charming.) This is the first time, however, that I've heard that the dish was considered politically incorrect during the Cultural Revolution due to its association with the old imperial government. How odd!

Having eaten Gong Bao Chicken at many Chinese restaurants, and even made a few variants from various older Chinese cookbooks, I was curious how Fuchsia Dunlop's version would compare. I noticed two major differences. Perhaps the most striking thing about this recipe is the use of Sichuan peppercorns. I have never noticed this flavor in restaurant versions around the U.S., and my older Chinese cookbooks rarely list this spice — perhaps because it was difficult to find at the time, or perhaps because they don't expect an American audience to appreciate its numbing citrusy flavor. The other difference is the lack of hoisin sauce, which is commonly found in Westernized versions of Gong Bao Chicken.

Fish with Chiles and Sichuan Peppercorns

After having this dish in China, and seeking it out at restaurants back in the U.S., I finally decided to try making it myself. One of the first things I did when we received Fuchsia Dunlop's very authentic looking Land of Plenty was to look up dishes we had enjoyed in China. The "boiled fish in chile oil" was at the top of the list. That was several years ago. The knowledge sat there in the back of my head, with a nice comfortable feeling that should the urge ever move me I would be able to try doing it.

The urge finally moved me.

I came home with some fish and shrimp intending to make... oh, I can't even remember what I intended to make. Oh, that's right, I remember: Goan fish stew, a very nice coconut curry. Then Joe reminded me that the Sichuan book has a lot of fish recipes, and we'd wanted to try some. So I looked it up and got excited. Though it seemed like it would take a long time, it's really not that bad. Each individual step was quite simple, and there was minimal chopping and dicing.

This dish looks terrifyingly hot with all those chiles, but the heat is actually very adjustable. Neither Joe nor I thought the recipe as cooked was especially hot (this might be due to the kind of chiles I used) and I'll probably up the chili and sichuan peppercorn level next time. (Important note: you don't actually eat the chile oil, and a lot of the spicy heat doesn't actually linger on the fish.) The fish, with its light cornstarch coating, has a lovely silky feel. I added in some shrimp, which we both thought were splendid cooked this way.

We served it with white rice, using a slotted spoon to scoop up "base flavorings" to put over the rice.

Copernicus - Polish Grocery in Ann Arbor

Elisabeth Magiera and Teresa Chajec, owners of Copernicus European Delicatessen

Breaking News... Ann Arbor has a new European grocery!

Thanks to a tip from a friend, Tuesday night we swung by the South Main Market to stop in at Copernicus European Delicatessen. We'd heard that they had paczki -- the real deal and not those jelly doughnuts pretending to be paczki -- from a bakery in Hamtramck (a Detroit-area city with a large Polish community). Coming from Hamtramck they had better be the real thing...

And they do have paczki. And the paczki are the real deal. And they have a whole lot more. Pierogi, breads, Polish meats (a truly dizzying array of Polish meats), canned goods, sweets... the place isn't huge, but the shelves are well-stocked. 

And, as it happens, Tuesday was their first day open. We went back Wednesday for pictures and to try some bread and sausages. The meats are made by a Polish butcher (as in, by people who came over from Poland themselves) in Chicago. The pazcki and some of the other pastries come from Hamtramck. Chajec and Magiera bake their own bread from dinner rolls to multi-grain loaves on premises.  Click on the photo to see a larger image.

In addition to a paczek, we tried a bread stuffed with a poppy seed filling (yum), an egg bread (also yum), and some small ciabatta bread rolls made on the premises (very nice, especially with butter). They are still experimenting with what breads their customers like best, and they're considering adding Russian black bread.

Joe sampled a number of the sausages and meats.  They're good, and different from what you usually see around.  He says more exploration is required.

The shelves are stocked with tinned fish and meats, pickled vegetables, seasonings and spices, pasta, and Polish chocolates and candies.  Click on the photo to see a larger image.

We picked up some pierogis, stuffed cabbage rolls, and a bottle of pickled vegetables as a side salad and had a quick Polish dinner. We'll do Copernicus in more detail once they've been open for a while, but we had to let you know!

Copernicus European Delicatessen
617 S. Main St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
734-222-9633

Monday through Friday 9am - 8pm
Saturday 9am - 6pm
Sunday 11am - 4pm

Best of 2006: The Year in Review

I'm stealing a page from Clotilde over at Chocolate and Zucchini, who has reviewed her 2006 year of food blogging and experiences with a Best of 2006 list. 2006 has been a quiet but busy year for myself and Joe and, as usual, I haven't written nearly as often I would have liked and article ideas are stacking up (guess I've got my work cut out for me in 2007). I'd have to say that the most influential food experience I had in 2006 was joining Tantre Farms CSA and picking up a big bag of vegetables every week. I believe very much in buying as much locally produced food as possible. It was a challenge to try to use them all before they went bad. I did "all right," wasting less than I might have, and I'm looking forward to doing even better this coming year.

Here's my 2006 year in review...

Most Inspiring Cookbook: Neither are newly published in 2006, but I started using them in 2006. The prize goes to Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything because, when I didn't know what to do with some of the vegetables I received from my farm share, Mark Bittman always had tasty answers. Contender: Fuchsia Dunlop's Szechuan cookbook Land of Plenty, a must-have book for authentic Szechuan cooking written for English speakers.  (If you already know this book, her Hunan cookbook has just come out in the US. My sister-in-law in England already has it and says it's great.)

Favorite Meal in Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti: This was a hard one, but Monahan's Seafood wins by a fishy whisker (do fish have whiskers? I guess catfish do...) in part because they've inspired me to cook with fish more often. Contender: Zingerman's Roadhouse Harvest Tomato Dinner. I haven't gotten around to posting a photo-review of the dinner yet, but I did do an interview with Zingerman's Chef Alex Young which mentions it.

Favorite Meal Elsewhere: I didn't review it, but last February we were in Austin, Texas and enjoyed a spectacular (if overwhelming) brunch at Fonda San Miguel, the premier Mexican restaurant in Austin serving traditional interior Mexican cuisine. We've also enjoyed dinner there previously. Contender: Wei Wei Noodles in Toledo, Ohio for geoduck clam sashimi. (pictured left)

Favorite Cheap Eats in Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti: Taqueria La Loma, which continues to serve consistently good and cheap tacos, yummy tortilla soup, and the area's best (and cheapest) horchata.

Favorite Cheap Eats Elsewhere: Chung King in San Gabriel, CA for a meal that took us back to China and was also surprisingly inexpensive (this could also have been a contender in the Favorite Meal Outside Ann Arbor category, but it was so cheap I'm putting it here). Contender: Louisana Creole in Detroit, for their fabulous red beans and rice.  And that cornbread...

Three selections from Chung King's cold appetizer buffet: peanuts with fish, shredded beef, and marinated green beans

Very Coconutty Coconut Macaroons

Happy New Year! May your 2007 be filled with delicious eating.

My mother gave us Borders gift certificates for Christmas, and it seemed the perfect opportunity to pick up a few new cookbooks that I've been wanting. The New Best Recipe (2nd edition) is a giant tome of a book with lots of testing notes explaining the hows and whys of each recipe. I wanted to try some new recipes for New Year's party treats. I'm dying to try their recipe for chicken stock because it sounds really really good, but since chicken stock doesn't make a good party treat I'm saving that for another day and instead gave their coconut macaroons a go.

I first made coconut macaroons a few years back. I was amazed at how easy they actually were. Messy yes, but difficult no. Other coconut macaroon recipes I've tried usually use sweetened condensed milk. Not these. This recipe uses cream of coconut instead. You know, that sweet coconut syrup used for piña coladas. They don't taste like piña coladas (though piña colada macaroons, what an idea!). They are just some of the coconut-y-est macaroons I've ever tried. They were so tasty that I even decided to not dip them in chocolate and simply enjoy the coconut.